the winning. People tune out if they fail, because they blame the system. If they win, they feel they are responsible.Too much information can overload people. Excellent companies keep corporate staff small. There isn't enough corporate staff around to generate as much confusion down the road. Dana has fewer than 100 people in its headquarters. Ford, on the other hand, has 17 layers of management, while Toyota has five. A key is that excellent companies focus on only a few key business values and objectives. This lets everyone know what's important. When Dana got a new CEO, he threw out over 22" of policy manuals and replaced them with a one-page statement focusing on the "productive people".In these companies were eight traits the authors felt significantly contributed to their success. Kimsey Mann, CEO of the world's second largest apparel manufacturer, believes that every one of the eight is about people. Each one may seem trite, but the intensity of the implementation of these traits, especially when compared to their competitors, is remarkable. The eight practices work because they make great sense. These basics are not new or untested, but managers have merely ignored the following practices.A Bias For Action The authors describe American companies as limited by structures which hinder action. Extraordinary effort was seen when a worker was given even a small measure of control over his destiny. He then has a bias for getting things done.Drastic simplification has been a key. Instead of a long-term task team that generates only reports, a task team may last only a week, generating results. This inhibits paralysis by analysis; when action stops while planning takes over. Chunking is a term for focusing on a problem and getting it resolved immediately.People with ideas are deflated by those who want to prove something won't work, killing initiative. Most companies take pride in setting very high goals for people, which is often sel...
